ZUKE EM: The Colle-Zukertort Revolutionized
Author: David Rudel
Thinker’s Press (2008)
255 pages
$25.00

Reviewed by Jeremy Silman

In general, opening books by chess amateurs are things I shy away from. Though well-intentioned, the amateur has trouble evaluating positions correctly (chess engines help, but it still takes a trained eye to see where Fritz’s brain has fallen through the cracks) and he tends to embrace emotion and love for the game to the detriment of chess reality. However, on rare occasions we find a guy that loves his “object of affection” so much that he devotes an enormous amount of time to it while showering love on the thing at every opportunity. This is one of those “rare occasions.”

Though most players are acquainted (or even play) the “normal” Colle (1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.e3 d5 4.Bd3 c5 5.c3 with Nbd2, 0-0, and an eventual e3-e4 to follow), the Zukertort remains a bit of an enigma. Basically, it features the same beginning moves as the normal Colle but instead of c3 it gives b3 a punt, intending to place the dark-squared Bishop on the a1-h8 diagonal and challenge the center with c2-c4 at an appropriate time. This often leads to extremely intense positions that are full of interesting positional and attacking ideas. In other words, it’s a very dynamic, fully playable system that’s easy to learn and can prove effective against players of all ratings.

So what makes ZUKE EM worthwhile? After 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e3 e6 4.Bd3 c5 5.b3 (the start of the Zukertort) there are a few systems that are supposed to give Black a fairly comfortable position, but here David Rudel takes us on a little journey – he explains all the ideas, he gives you a long pep-talk, he desperately wants you to love the Zukertort as much as he does, and (most importantly) he shares his original answers to these “comfortable position” systems and shows that White still has a lot of bite left in ALL lines of the Zuke.

I really like the fact that Mr. Rudel takes an extremely close look at all the key move orders and tries to extract the maximum from each different setup that Black chooses. In fact, he tries so hard and does so with such amazing passion that I’m often left rooting for him but, “secretly,” not really believing that White is ever going to get more than equality if Black knows what he’s doing. However, is this a bad thing? The real question is, what kind of equality? And here we see why the Zuckertort is a perfect opening for non-masters: black’s position takes a much greater amount of skill to play than white’s. In fact, because the black King is usually under some pressure, many black players will simply panic – many players hate it when the opponent even glances in their King’s direction!

Though Mr. Rudel finds a way to keep things exciting in many of the “problem” lines, the following caught my eye – it’s clearly one of black’s best anti-Zuk systems and I wasn’t in total agreement with some of the things the author said: 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e3 e6 4.Bd3 c5 5.b3 Nc6 6.0-0 Bd6 7.Bb2 0-0 8.Ne5 Qc7 9.f4 cxd4 10.exd4 Nb4 when white’s very important light-squared Bishop is going to be “boxed.” White has tried all sorts of things here but failed to get anything. However, Mr. Rudel proposes 11.Nc3!? Nxd3 12.Qxd3 Bd7 13.Rf3 as giving White some serious attacking chances. He gives games like:

12…Bd7 13.Rf3 Rac8 14.Rh3 Bb4?? 15.Ng4 Ne4 16.Nxe4 and White won in a couple more moves (Liebau-Remling, Germany 1994).

12…a6 13.Rf3 b5 14.Rh3 Bb7? 15.Ng4 (oops!) and White won another miniature in Serebriansky-Vam Gompel, corr. 1973.

Okay, so it’s clear that there IS some serious danger for Black in the position. But what’s really going on? In my view black’s best line is 12…Bd7 13.Rf3 Rfc8!

Mr. Rudel pointed out in an e-mail to me that 13…Bb4, another move I like which intends to chop and then stick the f6-Knight on e4, can be met by 14.Qe2 Rfc8 15.a3 [Note that 15.Ng4?? loses to 15…Nxg4 16.Qxh7+ Kf8] 15…Bxc3 [perhaps 15…Ba5!? is a thought?] 16.Rxc3 Qd6 17.Rh3 when the attacking chances are still there [g2-g4 is in the air] and c2-c4 will give White play elsewhere since if the c4-pawn is captured, an eventual d4-d5 will unleash the sleeping monster on b2.

Of course, 13…Bb4 is fully playable, but 13…Rfc8 is the most accurate move. BTW, Rudel had this to say about 13…Rfc8 in his book: “This seems an unnatural choice.” Funny, cause it seems to be THE most natural move on the board to me. The idea of pressure down the c-file is obvious enough, but it also frees f8 so that, in case of some insane sacrificial attack by White, the black King can waltz to f8 and e7. After getting my letter about this, he now sees the light. Nevertheless, he insists that it’s still a hard game with chances for both sides after 14.Rh3 (Rudel’s recommendation over Wiemer-Schoentheir, Germany 1985 which saw 14.Raf1 a6 [Note that 14…Bb4 can be met by 15.Nd1! when 15…Qxc2?? 16.Nxd7 Nxd7 17.Qb5 wins for White] 15.a4 and now 15…Rab8! is a bit better for Black. Mr. Rudel also feels that 14.Qe2!? might be even better) 14…Bb4 15.Qe2 Be8 16.a3 Bxc3 17.Rxc3 Qd6 and Rudel admits that Black is comfortable (18.Rh3 Ne4 intends 19…f6 with an excellent position). My thanks to David Rudel for the wonderful feedback, and for being very honest about his system and working hard to find the truth (and I have no doubt that there’s a lot more to discover in these lines).

Aside from the deep look at the Zuckertort, Rudel also checks out the various other lines that Black might toss in white’s direction. He gives a nice analysis (over many pages) of my old recommendation vs. 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e3 Bg4, which is 4.h3! Bh5 5.g4 Bg6 6.Ne5 when the threat of h4-h5 leaves Black under the gun. He also explores the other common “get the Bishop outside the pawn chain” choice: 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e3 Bf5. I vaguely remember Joel Benjamin looking at this in Chess Life many years ago and deciding that White had absolutely nothing. Whether this actually occurred or whether I dreamed it doesn’t really matter since Rudel fights like a demon to find something that would give White some hope for an edge. The result of his labors: 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 Bf5 4.c4 c6 5.Nc3 e6 6.Nh4 Bg6 7.Nxg6 hxg6 8.Bd2 Nbd7 and now 9.c5. I’m not hopeful that this is any fast road to White supremacy, but it does gain space and creates a tense game, so it’s fully playable. One of his main lines after 9.c5 is 9…e5 10.Be2 Qc7 11.g3 0-0-0 (11…Be7 followed by 12…N7f8-e6 makes more sense) 12.b4, but 11…0-0-0 looks terrible and I wouldn’t touch black’s position after 12.b4 with a barge pole.

All in all, ZUKE EM is good value for players looking for a solid but dynamic white repertoire with serious “attack the King” aspirations. It’s the kind of thing that, once you get it down, will reward you with many brutal muggings of the opponent. And, best of all, it’s completely playable even if your opponent prepares his head off. As I made clear, the author worked very hard to tighten up all anemic variations, and though I don’t think many of these really grant an advantage, they do promise a full blooded game where you’ll be far more at home than the guy sitting on the other side of the table.

Ideal for players in the 1200 to 1900 range.

Click to buy (or get more information about) ZUKE EM

Other books on the Colle:

COLLE-KOLTANOWSKI SYSTEM by Bronznik ($29.95)

STARTING OUT: THE COLLE by Palliser ($22.95)